davintosh

When I bought my BMW 528e in January, one of its more obvious deficiencies was the paint; one of the previous owners had had it resprayed for what must have been a good reason, but whoever did the work did an absolutely lousy job of prep work before the painting, and even the paint left a lot to be desired. The paint had not been given a clear coat, and a few years of neglect had taken its toll.

Having paid only $800 for the whole car, having it professionally painted didn’t seem to make a lot of sense, since a decent paint job would probably cost twice the purchase price. So an alternative was in order. I had picked up an issue of Hot Rod Paint & Body a while back that had an article in it describing how to Paint A Car With A Roller For Only $98 — they used multiple coats of Rustoleum paint thinned way down to the consistency of milk — and that seemed interesting.

Searching around on the Internet yielded what seemed to be the origin of that concept on a moparts.org thread that was started back in 2006. Someone was looking for a cheap affordable way to paint a car, and one of the users chimed in with this method. He said he had painted a number of cars this way before, and the photos of a ‘69 Charger he linked to were pretty impressive.

I figure with the BMW, I don’t have much to lose; it needs paint, and I can either try this or pay an arm & a leg for a real paint job. If I try this and it doesn’t turn out, I can resort to plan B… So I dove into the project headlong last week. The next-door neighbor was going to be out of town for a few weeks, and I got permission from her to use her largely-unused large garage while she was away. I had originally planned to just work on mechanicals, but a brief discussion of the subject with Yvonne convinced me that I ought to go ahead with it. I picked up some Rustoleum Burgundy at Menards, along with some high-density foam rollers and a few other needed items, and set to work.

My decision to go with something other than the original color, and a non-BMW color at that, probably won’t earn me any brownie points with the mye28.com purists, but who cares. I chose that color because I like it, and because Bryce liked it, and it just may end up in his possession sometime soon (more on that later.)

As expected, much of the time in the last week was spent on prep work; stripping trim, bumpers & lights off of it, fixing the odd issues with the paint, and sanding it all down. Looked pretty scary after the sanding was done! But that was nothing compared to what it looked like after the first coat of paint. The author of the Hot Rod article (Christopher Campbell) wrote, “That first roll is by far the worst part, and the finish that greets you immediately afterward will likely make you want to reconsider the whole affair, but keep the faith!” Wow was he right; that first roll I laid down yesterday looked absolutely awful and gave me a pit in my stomach. I was so discouraged I didn’t even take any pictures of it.

So far, I’ve got two coats on it, and I have to say that with the second coat it’s looking better. There are runs in it, and lots of other imperfections that I probably haven’t yet seen, but all that will get fixed with sanding and additional coats. I hope. I probably should have sanded tonight, but it was raining all day, and the boys and I went to see a movie, and it was dark by the time we got back, and the lighting in the garage is less than wonderful, and… Ok, so I mostly didn’t feel like it. But I’ll do it first thing in the morning, let it dry a while, then put on the third coat. With any luck it’ll be dry by tomorrow night & ready for a fourth coat tomorrow evening. No photos yet, but I’ll take some in the days to come

http://www.davintosh.com/2009/01/28/bmwotd-mine/
http://www.davintosh.com/2009/02/02/my-528e-the-good-and-the-bad/
http://www.davintosh.com/2009/02/05/define-historical/
http://www.davintosh.com/2009/02/16/making_progress/
http://www.davintosh.com/2009/02/19/a-short-road-trip-a-few-observations/
http://www.davintosh.com/2009/02/24/post-weekend-bmw-update/
http://www.davintosh.com/2009/05/16/another-bmw-update/

It’s been a while since I last posted a BMW of the Day, and I’d have to say that this one is notable enough to post. It’s a 1991 e34 535i that was modded by Dinan by the original owner. This thing is a hot rod, no doubt. Dinan added an intercooled turbo to the M30B35 engine, bumping the output up to about 425HP and almost 500 ft. lbs. of torque, more than doubling the stock numbers — 208 hp & 225 ft lbs. This thing would definitely plant you in your seat when the throttle is hit! The Dinan package also included various cosmetic upgrades, special wheels, and tighter suspension.

Vern Eide BMW in Sioux Falls has it for sale; I’ve seen it in person, and it is a gorgeous car. Not flawless, but then again it’s got 110k on the clock. The car is listed at just under $14,000, which I think is a tad higher than anybody in Sioux Falls is likely to pay for an 18 years old car, even one of this caliber. I would love to have it, but… I think it’d be difficult to get that one by the CFO at home!

Verne Eide put it up for bids on eBay as well, but the high bid of $8,600 didn’t meet their reserve price, so it’s still for sale locally. It’ll probably end up back on eBay or on one of the other Bimmer-specific sites; the latter would be a smart move on their part. This is a unique machine that will be fully appreciated by a select few people.

Here’s the copy from the eBay auction ad. ‘Scuse me while I go get something to clean the drool off my keyboard.

Vern Eide BMW
of
South Dakota
Proudly Offers

1991
BMW 535i DINAN
450/hp 494 ft-lbs
**All Upgrades Done By DINAN Engineering**
(Two Owner)
0 to 60 -4.5 sec
Standing Quarter mile 12.7 sec

Low Reserve Bid to own

All work performed by Dinan Engineering Cost of upgrade $19,995 back in 1991
Turbochraged With Intercooler
3.7L Low Compression Stroker Short Block
Ported High Flow Intake Manifold
Cold Air Intake
Dinan Free Flow Exhaust
Custom Software
Detonation Control System
Performance Clutch
Dinan Stage 3 Suspension
Bilstein Shocks
25mm Front Adjustable Anti Roll Bar
19mm Rear Adjustable Anti Roll Bar
Front Chamber Plates
Limited Slip Differntial
Dinan Brake Conversion
Dinan Wheels

You are bidding on a beautiful 1991 BMW 535i DINAN this in an absoulutly amazing car, This 535i Was driven directly from the Allison BMW in CA to DINAN Engineering for all upgrades “No Expense Spared” Cost of build back in 1991 was $19,995 this is a one of a kind DINAN. Car looks as it it has 20,000 miles, Interior is flawless! No dings or dents or scratches few minor rock pecs on nose but have been touched up, please remember this car is 18 years old but was only driven approx 6,000 miles per year and has been maintained. Call Heath @ Vern Eide.

How cool is this; when I wasn’t even watching, visitor number 10,000 came knocking at my site yesterday afternoon!

From the SiteMeter report, it looks like number 10k was someone in the Army looking for info on wiring up a Freestar to pull a trailer, a trial I went through a while back. I’m glad I took the time to write about that, because that’s been one of the top ranking pages ever since. Seems that the wiring on that van is goofy enough that a lot of people go looking for answers on it. Sure isn’t like the old days when you’d just splice in an off-the-shelf wiring kit…

Overall, visitor stats are on the upswing, as evidenced by SiteMeter’s graph showing visits & page views; last June saw 393 unique visitors with 674 page views; with a week left to go in June, the site has already seen 853 visitors and almost 2000 page views!

That doesn’t mean a whole lot, I know — lots of sites will see more traffic in a day than this one will see in a year — but it’s kinda cool for a site with no constant theme other than stuff I take the time to write about, little direction, and very little in the way of disciplined regularity. One cool side effect of the rise in visitorship is that Google Adsense revenue is on the rise as well; when I checked this morning, I had a whopping $17.60 banked! Much closer to the magic $100 mark than I was last August, when I had about three bucks in it. That’s right, folks; just keep on clickin’ those ads! Party at Dave’s when I get my first check!

The media guys played this at the beginning of our church service this morning; it’s a hoot! (YouTube link.)

“He once counted to infinity… Twice!” “He’s both left-handed, and right-handed…” “He uses Tabasco Sauce instead of Visine.” “He is not afraid of the dark; the dark is afraid of him.” Yeah; that pretty much describes me.

The 2009 Automania show is history, and it was a good one. I got there early yesterday (about 4:30) hoping to see a lot of the cars rolling in, but most of them were already in place when I arrived. A couple of the owners said they were there about 2:00!

There were a lot of cars there, and a lot of people. So many people that it was tough to get a decent photo of some of the cars. That’s the bothersome thing about a big show like this; that many cars draws that many people, but if there weren’t as many people, there wouldn’t be as many cars worth seeing. So I guess I’ll put up with it!

A lot of the cars that were there had been at previous shows, like the ‘54 Ford Delivery & matching boat-topped camper, and the over-the-top awesomeness of the ‘57 Pontiac Chieftain… I had a chance to talk with the owner of the Ford Delivery rig, and will put up some more details about that and other notable cars later. But for now, I’ll quit typing and just hit ‘publish’ to get these photos out there. I hope the page works ok; the admin side is a little balky, which probably means WordPress doens’t much like having to deal with 284 images. Oh well; here’s hoping!

Enjoy!

Click through to see all the photos, but beware; there are a lot of them! (more…)

I got an email this morning from my sister, reminding me that it was 90 years ago today that Dad was born. That had totally slipped my mind today. Happy Birthday, Dad.

Dad’s been gone since 1987, but I still miss him. He died from lung cancer after having smoked for a lot of years. It was only a matter of months from the time he was diagnosed, but those were some hard months, and they went far too fast for all of us.

The photo above was taken back in 1984 or so; he had grown up on his Dad’s farm, and remembered the time his Dad brought home their first tractor. He didn’t remember the date, but figured he was 10 or 12, so that would put it at about 1930. Prior to that they used horses for everything. Amazing to think it was that recently when horsepower was just that; horse-power.

He had wanted for years to do some farming with horses, had picked up a lot of old horse drawn equipment at auctions and from friends, and it seemed he always had horses around. A couple of years after he retired, he put it all together to plant & cultivate about 38 acres of corn with a pair of Morgans. By the time he got done with cultivating — in the July heat — he realized that there was a good reason farmers put the horses out to pasture and used tractors instead; it was a lot of work. In the fall he had someone with a corn picker harvest the corn, but we went through & gleaned the leftovers from the field by hand, with the horses pulling the wagon. We did that a number of times when we were kids and Dad had his hobby farm near Shindler; it was a great way to pick up a lot of good feed corn for next to nothing.

So here’s to Dad; I wish my kids knew you better than they do through my stories about you. And I wish I knew you better than the previous 26 years allowed. Too bad I wasn’t smart enough to appreciate you before you were gone.

Had a nice surprise in my inbox this morning; I subscribe to the Hemmings Motor News eWeekly newsletter, and today’s edition had a top-line writeup on the Sioux Falls Automania Show coming up next week! Sweet!

Not sure what to think of the bits about having to “chip harder when it comes to breaking out of winter” and the “Crisp weather” reference — the weather is usually pretty warm for Automania — but I guess the misconceptions about the weather in the upper Great Plains die hard. I read the Hemmings Auto Blogs pretty regularly; one can only hope that they at least send someone out for a writeup and some pictures. If not, maybe I can lend them mine, or better yet, get paid for it? (hint, hint!)

But anyway, Automania is less than a week away. As Caleb says (way too often), I can’t wait!

Here’s a car that Caleb & I saw at last September’s Oukasts’ Car Club show in Mitchell. The thing is so low it’d probably be grinding just rolling down the street. When the owner started it up & drove off, hydraulics raised it up a bit to make it at least drivable, but it was still low.

The whole thing was done up very nicely, with a Caterpillar radiator up front, a flathead engine… Parked right down the street from the Corn Palace. Very cool. Very much undrivable, but very cool!

The big news today is that someone in Winner, SD, won the PowerBall Lottery, to the tune of $232.1 Million. Wow. That’s a pile o’money. When I heard about this on the radio this morning the announcer also mentioned something about the SD Lottery Commission having posted info about where the money they took in has been spent, so I decided to have a look.

According to the “Where The Money Goes” page on the SD Lottery website, since the Lottery was first instituted in 1987, the state has netted $1.7 billion (with a ‘B”) from lottery revenues. That’s $1.7 billion that has gone into worthy programs like Property Tax Reduction ($1.3 billion) and Capital Construction ($30 million), and another $389 million in the General Fund. But that $1.7 billion in revenue comprises only 26.2% of the total of all that has been spent on the lottery; since 1987, nearly $6.6 billion has been spent by people trying to earn a quick buck.

Of that $6.6 billion, 55.4% (about $3.6 billion) has gone back out in prizes, and 5.5% ($360 million) in commission payments to retailers, which is money that has stayed in the economy, doing the work that money should do in a thriving economy. So to net that $1.7 billion, a total of about $2.5 billion was siphoned away from the economy. That’s basically an additional tax of about $162 a year for every resident of the state of South Dakota. But it’s not an efficient method of taxing, because more than a third of the money that went to the state (around $850 million) went into running the SD Lottery system. I’d say that’s a lot of overhead for tax money. And that’s just the direct cost; assessing the full societal cost for the problems that state-sponsored gambling bring on and compound is difficult, but it’s surely much, much more than that.

The SD Lottery website boasts that, “The Lottery is a totally self-funded agency. No tax dollars are used for its operation.” which is more than a bit deceiving. Because the lottery is funded through it’s own sales, and people are not required to put money into the lottery, it’s technically not a tax. But I remain unconvinced that money spent on the lottery is not a tax, and I’m not alone. Back in 1732 Henry Fielding wrote the following:

A Lottery is a Taxation,
Upon all the Fools in Creation;
And Heav’n be prais’d,
It is easily rais’d,
Credulity’s always in Fashion;
For, Folly’s a Fund,
Will never lose Ground;
While Fools are so rife in the Nation.

Since the lottery is essentially an elective tax, some taxpayers (Fielding’s fools) are hit harder than others. Our family, for example, hasn’t put one red cent into the lottery, which means that since 1987 someone else has plugged more than $17,000 into the SD Lottery system on our behalf. There are a lot of other people who have avoided the lottery, which means others have ponied up a pile of money to make up the difference; much more than their $162 a year. And the problem is the people who tend to elect to pay this tax are those who can least afford it. Taxes that put a larger burden lower income folks are generally considered ‘regressive’, aren’t they?

While I have actually benefitted from having the lottery in South Dakota, I’ve always felt that the lottery is a poor way for any government to garner income. I don’t expect the lottery to go away any time soon; since being implemented, pulling the plug on the system has been on the ballot three times, and each time a majority voted to have it continue. And that’s too bad because all those millions of dollars could be better spent strengthening the real economy of the state, not filling up the economic trash bin.

On our Kentucky visit last week, we intentionally drove some of the two-lane highways when traveling between the sites we visited, and the rural Kentucky scenery made the longer drive times very worthwhile. After our Mammoth Cave tour we had dinner in Cave City, KY, then drove Highway 31W back to Elizabethtown. Not too far down the road we happened across a very special sight, the Wigwam Village Inn.

The sign welcomes visitors to stop and “Sleep in a Wigwam”, and offers fifteen teepee-shaped rooms, complete with modern amenities, arranged in a semicircle around the main teepee in the center. The name of the place confused me a little, as the term ‘wigwam‘ is usually associated with a dome-shaped hut used by Native Americans, while the structures in the Wigwam Village were more like tipis… I won’t argue semantics with them though; wigwam or tipi, they are definitely cool!

The history of the Wigwam Village Inn is interesting; turns out that the one we saw is one of seven that were built some 70 years ago, and they even have a tie to South Dakota!

Wigwam Village Inn No. 2 began as a dream of Frank A. Redford in the early 1900s. Frank’s inspirations in this dream were a popular ice cream shop shaped like an upside down cone and authentic teepees he’d seen on a Sioux reservation in South Dakota. His dream became reality in 1935 when construction on Wigwam Village #1 was completed in Horse Cave, Kentucky. Realizing he’d hit upon a popular idea, Frank patented the design with the US patent office in 1936.

Wigwam Village Inn #2 was completed in 1937 in Cave City, and five more were built over time in Alabama, Florida, New Orleans, California, and Arizona… Of the seven original Wigwam Villages, only three remain: #2 in Cave City, Kentucky, #6 in Holbrook, Arizona. and #7 in Riallto, California. Wigwam Village #2 is an impressive sight and is truly a monument to one man’s American dream that came true.

When we saw it, my first thought was, “This is where they came up with the idea for the Cozy Cone Motel in Pixar’s Cars!” Sure enough, the website for the California Wigwam Village confirms that thought. And it fits right in with the Route 66 theme in Cars, because that Village is located right on the real Route 66.

When we drove by the Village in Cave City, I knew it was pretty cool, and I’m glad I at least stopped to take pictures. But had I known that the place was this old and unique, I definitely would’ve at least stopped in the gift shop. Next time I’m in Kentucky…